#Project Robot

[olvaheiner]

Project Robot (TBA)

[landsoflightanddark]

I almost can't believe there's a full image of this. How long has it been?

[mysticode54]

What a character design. They look so atypical, and yet, its very clearly a Fumito Ueda concept.

[selene-lunette]

Can y'all tell I'll never be able to recover

[icology]

I love that just by looking at it, you can totally tell it’s a fumito ueda game just based on the vibes. absolutely UNMISTAKABLE

[demifiendrsa]

Announcement Trailer For a New Upcoming Game From genDESIGN

genDESIGN's untitled project is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Epic Games Store. A release date was not announced.

[laughingpinecone]

OH

(with readable credits if anyone cares)

[sekainofantasy90]

Personal Top Announcements ❤️

[schismusic]

In the shadow of the horns: meditations on Team Ico's works – 2½. Project: Robot

Okay, there's only so much mileage I can get out of less than these two minutes of footage – even though it's, ahem, actual gameplay, which I believe is a mystifying statement at best. This, and I should probably be talking about The Last Guardian first, right? All of this is true. I raise you this: episode 1 was about Shadow of the Colossus, as opposed to Ico, so I've already set a precedent for being weird about the order this is going to take. Secondly, and more importantly, it's going to take a really long while before I go back to The Last Guardian. Not because I did not like the game: quite the opposite, actually, I thought it was stunning, but more on that when I actually write about it. It's just going to take a lot of concentration to replay it while taking notes and trying to ignore the sounds of my PS4 lifting off as the game runs. So let's focus on this much less electricity-intensive task first, shall we?

It's some dude (gender neutral) with a mask who climbs on top of some gigantic robot, goes on top of its head and has it detach, taking flight to avoid some kind of massive storm approaching. It's like a cross between Dormin's darkness and space debris as seen on the rings of Saturn/an asteroid belt. The head and its occupant are however quickly taken away by the storm itself and that's where the trailer ends. Some have speculated that this might already be a gameplay loop on its own, but – given the sheer amount of setpieces displayed by The Last Guardian – I'm inclined to think the exact opposite. My hopes are as follows: not only is this not representative of the final gameplay loop, but this is literally just the game's intro, or something.

Check this out: what if it's like Shadow of the Colossus, wherein perhaps there's a repeating gameplay loop of sorts that focuses heavily on exploration (of some deeper, fuller world than that of SotC – or maybe something even emptier, better conveyed through more powerful technology), but with the added narrative thing from The Last Guardian thrown in for good measure. Sort of à la Death Stranding when it actually starts gaining steam, in a way, but with the added Ueda thing where everything is melancholy and faraway and stunningly silent and meditative. Which is actually why I called this series a set of meditations, of all things – these are games that invite a level of thought that doesn't necessarily take the usual steps that Aristotle-based logic – for lack of a better word that isn't "Western", which one could see as sort of a cop-out in this scenario – would deem indispensable.

Such an approach, for starters, would explain the use of English in the spoken bits of the game. I've been playing Outer Wilds lately (thank you @alexswordsman for insisting that I give it a shot – you were right all along) and see, now that's a game that sounds like a solid peer to what I hope this one big ass robot game turns out to be. The idea is that the so-called plot of the game may be lived entirely in retrospect, but keeping the usual cryptic approach that Ueda and the team seem to favor in their storytelling. So there's this dude (gender neutral) who has to repair their robot, or somehow traverse a landscape, and in the meantime they come to learn… something, I guess, about who was here before? Or maybe just who was hit the hardest by that debris storm from the trailer, mere hours ago? Who knows, not me, I'm just speculating because I have way too much free time on my hands. Would love to hear you guys' thoughts on the matter. Gender neutral, of course.

I realize I'm still trying to think of Ueda as a creative, after all of these years, in one of two ways:

he's doing his usual thing, and he's thinking within his own box.

he's looking out to other developers in attempts to make a mishmash of random cool titles that might have interesting elements.

The problem with both of these lines of thought is that it makes no sense to close off one or the other. I can't shake the feeling that there will be, simultaneously, more and less than what I've discussed above. Again, this entire post is nothing more than a bunch of speculation and opinions piled together into a trenchcoat, but I'm still feeling way too up in the air about this. The one thing I'm sure of is, I am really excited about this. My best hope for this is not that it finds its market niche, or its "target audience", or any of that BMA crap. I just hope it's a good Ueda game, one that strikes emotional chords with the same grace and poise and elegance as the others do.

Now for another robot song, and it's the last one, I swear.

[gebo4482]

genDESIGN Teaser for Latest Title | The Game Awards 2024 (English subtitles)

Website

[thatonegamenerd]

Ueda-san's departure from Japan Studio

I just had a crazy thought as I woke up in the middle of the night, so this is probably nothing. But I can't stop thinking about it.

In the reveal trailer for genDESIGN's Project: Robot, we see a humanoid climbing a colossal robot as a shockwave rapidly carries destructive debris their way. I don't have any lore speculation, rather a thematic hypothesis as to one of the subtle meanings behind this trailer and possibly the game as a whole.

I believe that the humanoid piloting the head of the robot as it violently detaches itself from the body could be seen as Ueda-san and other key staff leaving Japan Studio during production on The Last Guardian (even though they technically "stayed" on to complete that game before fully "detaching"). And the visual of the remaining robot body is Japan Studio, which we watch get completely destroyed (perhaps how not too long after the departure of Ueda-san, Japan Studio would essentially be shut down save for Team Asobi). Even the flying head and pilot seem to be swept up by the destructive wave, potentially implying that genDESIGN's future is also uncertain.

I know, I'm probably reading too much into it, but I think it could be an interesting lens to view this new work! Or it could just be random sleep thoughts that got jumbled together into something resembling an epiphany.

[the-faxx-macheen]

Okay so like has anybody like brightened the video up enough to see what that thing was? At first I thought the trailer just started out solid black but it looks like there's something actually moving maybe? I can't tell if it's just the player character or if it's whatever is making that breathing/rumbling noise because once it brightens up it looks as if it quickly panned over to a blurry shot of player character's head

Of course I guess it could also be just them having been moving somewhere until they get to the robot? What do you guys think?

[landsoflightanddark]

Here is the official Youtube upload.

[noodles-and-tea]

Twins in time au.... Would Fiddleford act as a sort of father figure to Stan? Since Filbrick obviously SUCKED to both Stan and Ford and Fidd is more than definitely missing HIS son, and of course Ford has grown to love him but they're still BROTHERS.. Maybe they could act as the father/son the other is missing?

ABSOLUTELY!!!!

[bfleuterart]

Non Sum - a short comic I made this year for the Exceptional Machines mini anthology some friends and I put together. If you'd like it (plus 6 more comics by 6 more artists) in print, you can grab it for $10 on my store.

[icology]

I just know there’s so much more than what meets the eye for this game…

it looks hella futuristic from that teaser alone, but it could very well also take place in ancient ruins at some point.

one thing about the games is that the future always meets the present: ico goes from his peaceful village to a castle whose secrets are hidden behind sophisticated technology; in SOTC Wander himself is the future and travels to a land forgotten by time so much that the entity that rules it speaks an archaic dialect and is but a myth; in TLG the boy meets trico and unveils a strange civilization that seems centuries ahead of his traditional village and that might very well be alien.

I’m beyond excited to find out how they intertwine these ideas for project robot!